Microblogging is a form of blogging where authors or “microbloggers” post brief updates for friends and interested observers. Microbloggers post updates via text messaging, instant messaging (IM), email, on the web or via mobile/desktop applications or via the APIs provided by the social media network or microblog site. Microbloggers rapidly disseminate information by updating their blogs continuously within a single day, with information such as activity descriptions, expressions of opinion or status updates. Technologies such as hashtags, mentions (for example by using the ‘@’ sign to directly address another person in Twitter®) and short URLs have further improved the information-bearing capacity of microblogs. It is also possible to add rich media such as photographs, music, video and other applications to a microblog update.
The growth of microblogging has posed important business challenges. Traditionally, customer complaints and feedback was achieved through methods such as filling surveys, speaking directly with a manager, or calling a customer hotline. These methods could be tedious, especially for disgruntled customers. While it was not ideal for the business to lose valuable feedback that could otherwise be acted upon, the damage to its reputation was minimal as unhappy customers could only bad mouth it to a limited number of people in their social circle.
However, the growth of microblogging means that satisfied and dissatisfied customers can update their blogs to express satisfaction or frustration with their treatment by a particular business immediately and publicly to a wide circle of followers. Followers may then further disseminate these messages quickly, causing rapid shifts in customer behaviour. Dissatisfied customers, could make remarks which quickly and negatively impact a particular business. To worsen the problem, customer complaints are also effectively invisible to a business which relies on traditional customer feedback avenues.
Therefore, there exists a need for full-time monitoring of microblogs so that businesses can receive feedback to improve customer service. For example, a business can quickly join a conversation and remedy the situation by having the right people inside an organization connect directly with the dissatisfied customers. Furthermore, full-time monitoring of microblogs can enable a business to obtain vital competitive intelligence.